El Salvador’s Supreme Court on Jan. 31, 2018, blocked efforts to define marriage as between a man and a woman in the country’s constitution.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Judges on El Salvador’s Supreme Court on Jan. 31 ruled on four lawsuits filed against a constitutional amendment approved in May 2015 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

According to the judges, the initiative was invalid because it was not considered an urgent issue on which to vote.

The judges in the Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber said that lawmakers who were in office between 2012-2015 were not allowed to end debate over the proposal. Any reform must be approved in full and ratified by the next Legislature.

“I think that the chamber acted correctly politically, but it did not study the 2015 resolution in depth,” Gabriel Gasteazoro, a member of the Normal Collective, a group of young LGBTI professionals, told the Washington Blade. “It only saw the unconstitutionality of that vote. The judges only spoke about formalities, it did not do anything for the LGBTI community and its movements.”

The magistrates in their resolution said it was illegal for the lawmakers to approve a reform during the last legislative election’s transition period because it did not allow people to know the incoming lawmakers’ position on the issue.

The chamber dismissed other arguments put forth by the plaintiffs who raised “objections” because of discrepancies between the Constitution and the proposed reform. In addition, they recused themselves from hearing testimony about alleged infractions of provisions of the Family Code.

“If they skipped the discovery stage of the process that is required to reform the Constitution, this is the reason for the invalidation,” said Eduardo Mazariego, who is a member of Anglican Episcopal Church of El Salvador’s Sexual Diversity Ministry. “They are always ambiguous. They do not get into the issue of discrimination. They are only taking a position the fact there is a vice of form. They only consider procedural formalities to avoid political problems.”

The magistrates also signaled the plaintiffs asserted the constitutional reform was not discussed in full, but nevertheless they did not present objective proof of that.

“It is a positive resolution, although it does not attack the merits of the issue, it is important that the Supreme Court through the Constitutional Chamber begins to bring to light the respect of human rights of LGBTI people,” said Andrea Ayala, executive director of Espacio de Mujeres Lesbianas por la Diversidad (ESMULES).

A lawsuit that seeks to remove portions of the Family Code from the legal order is before the magistrates. El Salvador’s LGBTI activists insist they will not stop in their fight to validate their rights and to incorporate last month’s landmark Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruling that recognized same-sex marriage and transgender rights into their efforts.

“The Salvadoran LGBT Federation is studying some strategies that will allow us to advance the issue of recognition and exercise of human rights for our communities,” said Ayala.